Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the opposition I want to place on record that we share the observation put to us by the government that the whole point of scheduling is to impose restrictions on access to goods in the interests of public health and safety. The amendments moved by Senator Xenophon, requiring consultation and for the secretary to be satisfied that scheduling decisions will not have a negative impact on industry or access by consumers to therapeutic goods, might be an unachievable objective. As we said in our second reading comments, we very much urge the government to improve the quality of the consultation with industry and stakeholders. We do not believe that amendments (1) and (3) appropriately achieve that. By way of example, if new evidence emerged that a medicine currently available over the counter in pharmacies could be used as a precursor to an illicit drug, this provision—this is what the government has explained to us and we agree with this—would not allow the secretary to take action to restrict its availability by changing it to a prescription-only medicine. Such a change would adversely affect the industry and access by consumers. I understand where Senator Xenophon is coming from in moving the amendments and I understand the focus on appropriate consultation. However, we think that the amendments can have unintended and negative consequences and, as such, we will not be supporting them.